1 . My First Marathon（马拉松）

A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I was determined to go ahead.

I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was ＂not athletic＂.

The idea that I was ＂not athletic＂ stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces(鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

At mile 3, I passed a sign: ＂GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!＂

By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

By mile 21, I was starving!

As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

Determined to be myself, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels(世俗标签), I can now call myself a ＂marathon winner＂.

1. A month before the marathon, the author ____________.

A．was well trained	B．felt scared
C．made up his mind to run	D．lost hope

2. Why did the author mention the P.E. class in his 7th year?

A．To acknowledge the support of his teacher.

B．To amuse the readers with a funny story.

C．To show he was not talented in sports.

D．To share a precious memory.

3. How was the author’s first marathon?

A．He made it.	B．He quit halfway.
C．He got the first prize.	D．He walked to the end.

4. What does the story mainly tell us?

A．A man owes his success to his family support.

B．A winner is one with a great effort of will.

C．Failure is the mother of success.

D．One is never too old to learn.

2 . If you are already making the time to exercise, it is good indeed! With such busy lives, it can be hard to try and find the time to work out.     1     Working out in the morning provides additional benefits beyond being physically fit.

Your productivity is improved. Exercising makes you more awake and ready to handle whatever is ahead of you for the day.     2    

Your metabolism(新陈代谢) gets a head start.     3     If you work out in the mornings, then you will be getting the calorie(卡路里) burning benefits for the whole day, not in your sleep.

    4     Studies found that people who woke up early for exercise slept better than those who exercised in the evening. Exercise energizes you, so it is more difficult to relax and have a peaceful sleep when you are very excited.

    5     If you work out bright and early in the morning, you will be more likely to stick to healthy food choices throughout the day. Who would want to ruin their good workout by eating junk food? You will want to continue to focus on positive choices.

There are a lot of benefits to working out, especially in the mornings. Set your alarm clock an hour early and push yourself to work out! You will feel energized all day long.

A．You will stick to your diet.

B．Your quality of sleep improves.

C．You prefer healthy food to fast food.

D．There is no reason you should exercise in the morning.

E．You can keep your head clear for 4-10 hours after exercise.

F．After you exercise, you continue to burn calories throughout the day.

G．If you are planning to do exercise regularly, or you’re doing it now, then listen up!

3 . Talking to yourself may seem a little shameful. According to the well-known saying, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness,     1     Talking to ourselves, whether out loud or silently in our heads, is a valuable tool for thought.

Far from being mentally ill, self-talk allows us to plan what we are going to do, manage our activities, regulate our emotions and even create a description of our experience.    2    

As children, according to the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, we use private speech to regulate our actions in the same way that we use public speech to control the behavior of others.    3     Psychological experiments have shown that the private speech can improve our performance on tasks ranging from judging what other people are thinking to sorting images into categories. One recent study suggested that self-talk is most effective when we address ourselves in the second person, as “you” rather than “I”.

    4     If you want proof, turn on the sports channel. You’re certain to see an athlete or two cheering themselves up with a bitter phrase or scolding themselves after a bad shot.

Conduct a dialogue with ourselves.    5     The private speech seems to be a particularly good way of solving problems and working through ideas. The to-and-fro between different points of view means our thoughts can end up in expected places, just like a regular dialogue can, and might turn out to be one of the keys to human creativity.

A．What is private speech?

B．But there is no need for embarrassment.

C．Psychologists refer to this as private speech.

D．Ask questions of the self and provide answers.

E．We do a lot of private speech when we are young.

F．As we grow older, we make the private speech become the way of blinking,

G．Although the private speech is effective, we never entirely put away the out-loud speech.

4 . Modern humans have a hard time controlling their desire to eat. Often you eat not because you are hungry, but because you are affected by many other things. How much you eat is strongly affected by how much those around you eat. People eating alone eat least. People eating with one other person eat 35 percent more than they do at home. People dining in a party of four eat 75percent more. Eating with overweight friends? You’ll eat more. Is your waitress overweight?You’ll eat more. Wide variety of food? You’ll eat more.
Plates can decide how sweet dessert tastes. If people ate it off a paper plate, they’d say, “This is good.” If they ate it off a fancy silver plate, they would say, “This is the greatest cake I’ve eaten in my entire life.”
Your knowledge about what makes food good or bad also affects how much you eat. You tend to eat more when you think the food is good, and less when you think it is bad. So Grandma’s cookies always taste better than other cookies. “Good food” even has a “health halo(光环) effect”. If we’re eating something healthy, we feel that everything in that meal is healthy. Due to this, people often believe that a cheese cake with a salad has fewer calories (卡路里) than the cheese cake alone. That’s perhaps also why eating organic (有机的) food might turn you into an annoying guy. Your brain may use anything that makes you feel good about your own morality to excuse your immoral behavior .
Food and hunger affect your judgment too. Hungry judges give more serious sentences. Kids who don’t eat breakfast behave worse than kids who eat their breakfast. People who have low blood sugar are more likely than the average person to have trouble concentrating and controlling their unpleasant emotions.
1. What is mentioned as a cause of overeating?

A．Suffering from great loneliness.

B．Being served by a helpful waitress.

C．Being treated to high quality food.

D．Eating with many friends.

2. According to the passage, an annoying person may be one who ______.

A．finds any excuse for eating more

B．is crazy about the quality of plates

C．competes with others in making cookies

D．teaches people to stick to morality

3. According to the passage, people are more likely to make a bad judgment when ______.

A．they don’t feel hungry

B．they aren’t overweight

C．they have low blood sugar

D．they know little about food

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．When Can’t We Go on a Diet?

B．What Affects Eating?

C．How to Make Good Food

D．Where to Find Safe Food